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It’s swings and roundabouts, isn’t it. Especially when you have a toddler. Personally, I think they eat what they need,so if they don’t eat, no biggie. It’s certainly not worth an hour and a half of cajoling and aeroplanes for one more teaspoonful of food. Teaspoons never put anyone up or down, did they?

It’s different when you’re in it though. The turtle ate sh*g all while we were driving across country for two weeks. He’d have some sausage and a yogurt for breakfast and that would be about it for the day. He might eat a few chips or some chicken or something, but that was it. I mean he was offered all kinds of everything, to no avail. Not even corn. And he loves corn. Pasta. Nothing.

I didn’t really pay that much attention while we were in the middle of it. “He mustn’t be hungry…Can’t force him…We’ll try again later…” Then, we got here and I was cooking again and he ate and ate and ate. Everything in sight. And the guilt set in. “Oh my God, he was hungry that whole time. He just didn’t like the food. I’m such a bad mother. I should have known.” But now we’re almost back to where we were. He’s eating sh*g all. He might have an egg or some cereal in the morning. Maybe a bite of toast. And a yogurt. A few berries – blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries (goodness but they’re cheap here) – perhaps. Lunchtime – leftovers or something, usually shunned. Dinner – last night he had spaghetti with parmesan on it, completely ignoring the bolognese. So just spaghetti and cheese. And not much of that. A banana and a cup of milk before bed and that was it.

I’ve started offering something before bed because he has started asking for things when he’s in bed. And I’m conflicted. I don’t want him to go to bed hungry. And I also don’t want him “delaying” bedtime. Supernanny et al have me in a tizzy about this. It seems to be one of the worst things you can do. Although surely sending a child to bed hungry is worse? So a pre-bed time snack seems to be the way to go. That way I can brush his teeth before he goes to sleep and let go of that guilt and the fear that all of his teeth will fall out of his head (before they’re supposed to).

So I have to trust him that he’s eating enough. He’s certainly pooing enough. And he has the energy of ten Duracell bunnnies. But it’s hard. Oh so hard.